Is Assassin's Creed an RPG?
Assassin's Creed is a franchise of open world video games, well-known for depicting historical time periods and depicting secret conspiracies. The first Assassin's Creed video game, Assassin's Creed (2007), was developed by Ubisoft Montreal and published by Ubisoft. Assassin's Creed video games have been praised for their atmosphere, open world gameplay, parkour movement, as well as unique settings. While Assassin's Creed video games are well-known as traditional open world video games, many Assassin's Creed video games also feature RPG (role-playing game) aspects, such as gaining levels and equipping items, a reason why Assassin's Creed fans and players may wonder whether the Assassin's Creed video games could be described as RPG video games.
In general, most Assassin's Creed video games are not RPGs. Instead, they are action-adventure open world video games. However, some Assassin's Creed video games are RPGs.
Assassin's Creed (2007) is an action-adventure open world video game.
Assassin's Creed is a franchise with a wealth of video games. Among the many video games belonging to this franchise, the first and early Assassin's Creed video games, with created the formula this seen to this day and enjoyed by many fans, include Assassin's Creed (2007), Assassin's Creed II (2009), Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood (2010) and Assassin's Creed: Revelations (2011). Subsequent Assassin's Creed video games would expand and enhance the original formula, and would also take place in different time settings than the previous video games of the series. Examples of these subsequent video games are Assassin's Creed III (2012), Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag (2013), Assassin's Creed Rogue (2014), Assassin's Creed Unity (2014) and Assassin's Creed Syndicate (2015).
Assassin's Creed video games often feature open world environments in which the main game character can adventure, such as Damascus in Assassin's Creed (2007).
Which Assassin's Creed Video Games Are RPGs?
Considering that Assassin's Creed is a franchise with a wealth of video games, and that the franchise has changed and evolved over time, adding new features and characteristics, while retaining the open world formula of the first video games, Assassin's Creed fans and players may wonder which Assassin's Creed video games are RPGs, and which are open world action-adventure video games.
Assassin's Creed Origins, Assassin's Creed Odyssey and Assassin's Creed Valhalla are RPGs.
While most Assassin's Creed video games are traditional open world video games, with upgrades, but not branching dialogues, deep role-playing systems, and classic RPG elements such as experience and enemy levels, some of the video games in the series are technically RPG video games, such as Assassin's Creed Origins (2017), Assassin's Creed Odyssey (2018) and Assassin's Creed Valhalla (2020). These video games retain the open world gameplay of the series, but also feature extensive RPG elements which are quite important to their gameplay. Moreover, these video games feature role-playing elements, and for these reasons, they can be described as RPG video games.
Breakdown of Assassin's Creed Video Games Regarding the RPG Aspects
Assassin's Creed (2007) - RPG: No
Assassin's Creed II (2009) - RPG: No
Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood (2010) - RPG: No
Assassin's Creed: Revelations (2011) - RPG: No
Assassin's Creed III (2012) - RPG: No
Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag (2013) - RPG: No
Assassin's Creed Rogue (2014) - RPG: No
Assassin's Creed Unity (2014) - RPG: Some elements
Assassin's Creed Syndicate (2015) - RPG: Some elements
Assassin's Creed Origins (2017) - RPG: Yes
Assassin's Creed Odyssey (2018) - RPG: Yes
Assassin's Creed Valhalla (2020) - RPG: Yes
The Early Assassin's Creed Video Games - RPGs?
The early Assassin's Creed video games, which in this article are considered Assassin's Creed (2007), Assassin's Creed II (2009), Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood (2010) and Assassin's Creed: Revelations (2011), while featuring the classic Assassin's Creed video game formula, also have some noticeable differences from more recent video games of this same franchise. These early Assassin's Creed video games featured open world gameplay, including the characteristical parkour movement of the series, as well as multiple cities and environments in which the main character can adventure.
Assassin's Creed (2007), such as the other early Assassin's Creed video games, was mostly an action-adventure open world video game.
While the early Assassin's Creed video games featured upgrades for the main character, including more health, more abilities, more weapons and stronger weapons, the role-playing elements were much less present than in subsequent Assassin's Creed video games. Indeed, in these early Assassin's Creed video games, during most cutscenes, the possibilities for the player to decide the main character's interaction were very different from the interactions seen in most RPG video games. In these early Assassin's Creed video games, most of the time the cutscenes could mostly be watched, with the possibility of the main character moving around, and in some cases the main character would be able to interact through specific actions. However, in these cutscenes there were no dialogue options such as seen in RPG video games such as Mass Effect (2007), The Witcher (2007) or Dragon Age (2009). Due to the reason of this lack of dialogue choices, as well as the lack of other classic RPG elements, these early Assassin's Creed video games are open world action-adventure video games, but they are not RPG video games.
While Assassin's Creed (2007) and other early Assassin's Creed games feature side missions, these are mostly related to the main mission, and lack core RPG elements. Instead, they are much more similar to missions seen in the action-adventure genre.
The Early 2010s Assassin's Creed Video Games - More RPG-y?
After the release of the early Assassin's Creed video games, the gameplay of the Assassin's Creed franchise had been established and was already well-known to the public. Main characters performing parkour in centuries-old cities, secret conspiracies, and the open world environment were some of the characteristics easily-recognizable by players as belonging to the Assassin's Creed video games. At this time, the franchise saw the release of some video games that began to take place in different time settings, and the release of Assassin's Creed video games such as Assassin's Creed III (2012), Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag (2013), Assassin's Creed Rogue (2014), Assassin's Creed Unity (2014) and Assassin's Creed Syndicate (2015). While previous Assassin's Creed video games mostly were set during time periods of Middle Ages and early Modern History, these video games would be set mostly during the Late Modern Period. Moreover, these subsequent Assassin's Creed video games would feature new aspects and details of gameplay previously not seen in other video games of the series, and aspects such as gaining experience became more prevalent in the gameplay, which is also a classic characteristic of an RPG video game.
The Late 2010s Assassin's Creed Video Games - RPGs
The Assassin's Creed video games of the late 2010s, and more precisely, the post-2016 Assassin's Creed video games would feature more definitive RPG characteristics, including role-playing elements. Some of these video games are Assassin's Creed Origins (2017), Assassin's Creed Odyssey (2018) and Assassin's Creed Valhalla (2020). While these video games still retain the classic open world gameplay of the Assassin's Creed franchise, they also have much deeper and more detailed role-playing gameplay mechanics, such as different dialogue choices. Moreover, these video games also depict NPC enemies indicating their level next to their name, an RPG characteristic.
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